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NUI Galway’s head of economics Prof Alan Ahearne has been appointed as an external advisor to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In this capacity he will advise the strategy, practice and review department of the IMF on how the fund could better support the efforts of countries at all levels of income to boost growth and create jobs in the period ahead.

Ahearne is currently preparing a report, along with Sir Paul Collier of Oxford University and Dr Paul Acquah, former governor of the Bank of Ghana on how the fund’s advice on macro-critical structural issues could be enhanced.

He said: “This is an important juncture for the IMF and the global economy. The priority of governments around the world is to revive growth. But with the overhang of imbalances leaving little room for expansionary macroeconomic policies, the only remaining policy options are structural.”

Having joined the JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics at NUI Galway in 2005, Ahearne is a member of the Commission (Board) of the Central Bank of Ireland.

He served as special advisor to the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan from March 2009 to March 2011 and is a non-resident fellow at Brussels-based think-tank Bruegel and a visiting executive lecturer in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Before joining NUI Galway, Ahearne was senior economist at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington DC, where he worked for seven years.

He has taught economics at Carnegie Mellon University, University College Dublin, Dublin City University, and the University of Limerick.

He began his professional career with Coopers & Lybrand and also worked for Bank of Ireland.